Cities Try To Snuff Vended Smokes

May 18, 1986|by DAN HARTZELL, The Morning Call

The cigarette wars rage on, and one focus of the anti-smoking troops - control of vending machines - is spreading from Allentown to Bethlehem.

In concert with a worldwide effort to reduce teen smoking, Allentown and Bethlehem are both attempting to regulate the placement of cigarette vending machines, either by voluntary compliance or by law.

The Bethlehem Health Bureau recently proposed a city ordinance setting rules for the placement of cigarette machines in city businesses, while Allentown hopes to avoid the losses suffered by its neighbor's legislation by asking proprietors to move accessible machines to places where minors cannot use them.

Despite the support of the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the Lehigh Valley Stroke Program, the American Lung Association and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bethlehem's proposed law was ambushed last week by City Council.

In Allentown, the bureau's efforts to enforce a state law banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone under 16 years of age have resulted in some complaints from business owners and operators. The same can probably be expected in Bethlehem, where Health Director Glen Cooper still believes the city will have to address the vending machine issue sometime in the future.

At issue is what municipal health officials consider one of the most important phases of the health community's attack on smoking: stopping youth smoking, which is responsible for many lifelong smoking habits.

"I got hooked when I was 12," Cooper told a City Council committee last week, using himself as an example, "and it took me 25 years to quit."

The city's proposed law, requiring cigarette vending machines to be placed within 12 feet of an occupied work station with an unobstructed view to allow workers to monitor its use, was approved by the Bethlehem Health Board last month. Although board members questioned some provisions of the bill and eventually increased the distance from six to 12 feet, they passed it unanimously.

Council, however, was another matter. Members said they foresaw serious enforcement problems, and questioned whether the law would be effective even if it could be enforced. With six of seven council members attending the meeting, nobody voiced support for the bill.

The law would authorize revocation of a non-complying business's city health license, along with the standard civil penalties of up to $300 in fines for each offense. Cooper said health inspectors could check on the placement of the machines when they do their normal, twice-yearly health inspections.

Allentown Health Director Gary Gurian said getting the machines out of restaurant vestibules, where monitoring is virtually impossible, and out of fast-food establishments, where young people tend to congregate, would be major steps in the right direction.

The Allentown Health Bureau is further down the road with its vending- machin e activities, having caused something of a furor last month with a sort of "sting" operation aimed at finding out how difficult it is for people under 16 to buy cigarettes from a machine - contrary to existing state law.

Out of 13 machines involved in the survey, two children ages 10 and 11 made purchases at four machines. Nobody stopped them from using any of the others, however, in the remaining nine cases, the two either could not find the machine on the property, or the machine did not work.

Similar "stings" aimed at over-the-counter sales were conducted in recent months by the Allentown bureau, also upsetting some business owners - but netting results as well, Gurian said, noting the operations "have had a profound effect" in Allentown.

During the first exercise last September, a 15-year-old was sold cigarettes at each of 16 stores tested. In February, however, cigarettes were denied to children ages 10 and 11 at seven of 11 stores visited.

One proprietor, from whose vending machine two girls acting for the bureau bought cigarettes successfully last month, said he agreed with the bureau's intent and proved it by removing the machine from his store - but strongly criticized the bureau's methods.

Tom Thompson, owner of a donut shop in Allentown, said the bureau should take a more positive approach, such as rewarding businesses who comply with voluntary controls, generating good publicity, rather than publicizing the names of those where the law has been violated, resulting in negative publicity. The bureau has taken such initiative by rewarding restaurants that establish no-smoking sections.

The Morning Call received a number of letters to the editor on both sides of the issue since the "stings" began last September.